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KANSAS— THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 



SPEECH 




or 



HON. G;- A. GROW, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Delivei'ed in the House of Representatives, March 25, 1858. 



Mr. GRO^Y said : 

By the thinJ section of tlie fourth article of the 
Constitution, it is provided tliat "new States 
may be admitted by the Congress into this 
UniJn." Under that clause, eighteen States have 
been added to the Union since its formation ; 
thirteen with and five without an act of Congress 
authorizing the formation of a State Government. 
But in every application, whetlier with or with- 
out an enabling act, the first and raost important 
question for the determination of Congress is, 
whether the Constitution presented embodies in 
its essential features the will of the people to be 
affected l\v it. If it does not, then il should be 
rejected, no matter what the authority or mode 
of its formation. The people of a Territory have 
the right, like any other portion of the American 
people, under the first clause of Jthe amendments 
to the Constitution, to petition the Government 
at all times, and it is in the discretionary power 
of Congress to grant their prayer or not The 
application of a people for admission as a State 
is, in all cases, in the nature of a petition. An 
enabling act is not, therefore, absolutely neces- 
sarj- for the people of a Territory, before they can 
proceed to form a Constitution and State Gov- 
ernment, in order to apjily for admission into the 
Union. Yet, as the Territorial Government is 
established by Congress, it cannot be superseded 
by any other (jovernment without the assent of 
Congress. It is not, however, material whether 
that assent be given before or after the action of 
the people of the Territory. 

I talie this occasion, in passing, to express my 
obligations to my colleague, [Mr. Phillii>s,] tor 
the notice and importance whi.h be attached to 
my views on this point, expressed by me in the 
last Congress. As he quoted them with approval, 
I am rejoiced to know that he and his political 
associates still adhere to one doctrine of the 
Jackson Democracy, and I hope that they may 
yet return to the principles ami teachings of Jef- 
ferson and the lathers of American Democracy, 
from which, within the last few years, they have 
so widely strayed. 



The great question which presents itself in 
this case is, does the Constitution meet the will 
of the people who are to be affected by it? That 
has been the fir.'^t and tue controlling question in 
the action of Congress on every application for a 
new State in the historj of the Government. In 
the case of Michigan, she came here against the 
forms prescribed for her action ; yet Congress 
took the will of the people, and set aside all 
formalities. 

In the case upon which we are now called to 
act, we have only the form of a Constitution pre- 
sented by one man, and the argument of the 
President in its favor ; while the people of Kan- 
sas, who are to be effected by it, protest against 
admission into the Union under it in every form 
by which they can make their will known. 

The entire history of the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion proves that a large majority of the people of 
Kansas are opposed to it. The evidence of this 
fact, in the possession of the House, is the remon- 
strance of its citizens laid upon your table, the 
protest of the State officers elected under this 
Constitution, also of the Delegate on this floor ; 
the resolutions of the Legislative Assembly, and 
the vote of the people on the 4th of January. In 
all the reliable information from the Territory, 
there i^ but one opinion esjjressed as to the op- 
position of the people to this Constitution. Gov. 
Walker, in his letter to General Cass, says : 

" 1 state it as a fact, based on a long and in- 
' timate association with the people of Kansas, 
' that an overwhelming majority of that people 
' are opposed to that instrument; and my letters 
' state that l)ut One out of twenty of the press of 
' Kansas sustain it." * * * " Indeed, dis- 
' guise it as we may to ourselves, under the influ- 
' ence of the present excitement, the facts will 
' demonstrate that any attempt by Congress to 
' force this Constitution upon the people of Kan- 
' sas will be an effort to substitute the will of a 
' small rninority for that of an overwhelming ma- 
' jority of the jjeople of Kansas." 

Governor Stanton corroborates this statement, 
and adds : 






" It can only be maintained by the arms of the 
' Federal GoTernraent forcing the Constitution 
' upon the people against their declared •will, and 
' against every principle of republicanism, de- 
' ynocracy, right, and justice." 

The State oificers elected on the 4th of Janu- 
ary last, under this Constitulion, protest in the 
following language : 

" We, the otTicers elected under said Constitu- 
' tion, do mosi respectfully and earnestly pray 
' your honorable bodies not to admit Kansas into 
' he Union under said Constitution, and thus 
* force upon an unwilling people an organic law 
' against their express will, and in violation of 
' every principle of popular government." 

We also have the resolutions of the Legislative 
Assembly of the Territory, passed on the 12th of 
January, declaring 

" That the people of Kansas being opposed to 
' said Constitution, Congress has no rightful power 
under it to admit said Territory into the Union 
- as a State ; and we, the representatives of said 
' people, do hereby, in their name and on their 
' behalf, solemnly protest against such admis- 
' siou." 

And on the last day of its session, the Legisla- 
ture passed, unanimoully, the following re- 
solve : 

" That we do hereby, for the last time, solemn- 
' ly protest against the admission of Kansas into 
' the Union under the Lecompton Constitution ; 
' that we hurl back, with scorn, the libellous 
• charge contained in the message of the Presi- 
' dent accompanying the Lecompton Constitution, 
' to the effect that the freemen of Kansas are a 
< lawless people; that, relying upon the justice 
' of our cause, we do hereby, in behalf of the 
' people we represent, solemnly pledge ourselves 
' to each other, to our friends in Congress and in 
' the Slates, our lives, our fortunes, and our sa- 
' cred honors, to resist the Lecompton Constita- 
' tion and Government by the force of arms, if 
' necessary ; that, in this perilous hour of our 
■' history, we appeal to the civilized world for the 
' rectitude of our position, and call upon the 
' friends of Freedom everywhere to array them- 
' selves against the last act of oppression in the 
' Kansas drama." 

Thus have they protested in every form known 
to the organism of our Government. And last 
of all, they protested at the ballot-box, with over 
ten thousand voices. On the 4th of January last, 
a vote was ordered to be taken for and against 
this Constitation, by the Legislature, which is 
recognised as valid by all parties in the Territo- 
ry, and by the President, in declaring to Gov. 
Denver that the people must be protected in 
voting for or against the CQnstitution on that 
day. Almost eleven thousand voters protested 
then against that Constitution, as not; embody- 
ing their will. On the 21st of December, the 
vote was only six thousand five hundred and 
twenty-six, half of which has been proven 
fraudulent by the investigating committee or- 
dered by the Legislature ; so that not more than 
three thousand legal votes were cast on the prop- 
osition then submitted, leaving a majority of 
from seven to eight thousand against this Con- 



stitution. Yet we are asked to enact it into the 
organic law of the people, and to institute under 
it a State Government, of officers elected by 
fraud. We are asked to cast aside the vote of 
the people on the 4th of Jrwiuary, because they 
did not vote at the preceding elections. 

That election, it is said, was illegal, though it 
is not denied that it expressed the popular will ; 
but that the people could not vote on their Con- 
stitution at any other election than the one fixed 
by the delegates to the Convention. It was the 
same legislative power that fixed the election of 
the 4th of January that called the Convention, 
with the exception that the Legislature that fixed 
the election derived its power from the people, 
while the one that called the Convention was a 
usurpation. But, treating them both as valid, 
the last one had as much power as the first, and 
was the legislative power of the- Territory, and 
must continue to be till it is superseded by some 
(iovernment, with the consent of Congress. Un- 
til that time, it has full legislative power to enact, 
rej)eal, or modify any existing laws of the Terri- 
tory ; and if the Lecompton Convention prevents 
that, thfu, in the language of the President, it 
would be rebellion — for the Territorial Govern- 
ment would be superseded without the consent 
of Congress. Why does he not send his army to 
put down this Constitution and its supporters, 
as he did to put down the Topeka party on the 
4th of July, 185G? If the TerritorialLegisla- 
ture does not possess the legislative power of the 
Territory, then the people have parted with their 
sovereignty irrevocably, for four months, or un- 
til the action of Congress upon this Constitu- 
tion. If so, they could as well part with it for- 
ever, and thus your reason would subvert all the 
maxims of our system of Government. The time 
and mode of voting on the 4th of January was 
established bv the legislative authority of the 
Territory, an authority as valid and as legal as 
was the same authority in calling the Conven- 
tion. 

It is argued, that though this Constitution does 
not embody the will of the people, yet they must 
submit to it, because they did not vote before 
its formation, though they did afterwards. It is 
a new and strange doctrine, that the people of 
this country, .who are the depositaries of the 
sovereignty of the Government, have not the 
right to vote upon the same subject to-morrow, 
because they refuse to go to the polls to-day. 
It is one of the rights of American citizens to 
absent themselves from elections if they choose ; 
and I grant you that, when all have the privi- 
lege of voting, those who do not vote must sub- 
mit to the action of those who do. But when 
the majority do vote, where is the reason for 
turning a deaf ear to their voice ? If the peo- 
ple withhold their votes at a piimary election, 
does that deprive them of the right to vote upon 
the great question of what shall be their funda- 
mental law ? They did vote on the 4th of Jan- 
nary ; and why disregard the will of the people, 
fully expressed at the ballot-box? This is not 
a question of whether the minority shall control 
the State because the majority have not voted ; 
for in this case they went to the polls and did 



vote. But you say they shall not vote to-day, 
because tliey refused to vote yesterday. That is 
a matter which does not concern you. The peo- 
ple themselves are the ones to decide under what 
circumstances they will vote, or withhold their 
votes. They voted at the first election held in 
that Territory, at which a fair expression of the 
puhlic will could be given. 

At the election for the call of a Convention, 
the test oaths were upon the statute-books of 
Kansas, which would disfranchise all who would 
not submit to degradation ; all the tests and 
laws which were declared by Gen. Cass, in the 
Senate, to be a " disgrace to the age and the 
country." Senator Bayard said they were "shock- 
ing to the moral sense ;" and Senator Weller, 
that they were "infamous in their character," 
" in violation of the Constitution," and "revolt- 
ing to every feeling ot humanity.'' Mr. Clayton 
denounced them as " unjust, iniquitous, oppres- 
sive, and infamous laws." 

These test laws were thus denounced upon the 
floor of the Senate of the United States, by men 
who could not be charged with fanaticism. No 
one, then, could vote on the call for the Convtm- 
tion, who was not ready to submit to those test 
oaths; and but 2,6l'o votes were polled for the 
Convention, though the Delegate to Congress, at 
the same election, received 4,276. These test 
oaths were repealed, it is true, before the elec- 
tion of delegates ; but in the election of delegates, 
half of the counties were disfranchised, and that, 
too, by no fault of theirs. Fifteen of the counties 
were entirel_y disfranchised, and four others par- 
tially. Governor Walker, in his letter to General 
Cass, of the loth December, 1857, says: 

"In nineteen of these counties there was no 
' census, and therefore there could be no such 
' apportionment there of delegates, based upon 
' such census. And in fifteen of these counties 
' there was no registry of voters. These fifteen 
' counties, including many of the oldest organi- 
' zed counties of the Territory, were entirely dis- 
' franchised, and did not give and (by no fault 

* of their own) could not give a solitary vote for 

* delegates to the Convention." * * * 

"In fifteen counties out of thirty-four, there 
' was no registry, and not a solitary vote was 
' given or could be given for delegates to the 
' Convention in any of these counties." 

Governor Stanton, in corroboration of this 
statement, in his address to the people of the 
United States, says: 

"The registration required by law had been 
' imperfect in all the counties, and had been 
' wholly omitted in one-half of them ; nor could 
' the people of these disfranchised counties vote 

* in any ailjacent county, as has been falsely 
' suggested." 

But it has been urged, by the advocates of 
Lecompton, that the disfranchisement of these 
counties was the fault of the voters themselves 
in not being registered; that after the census 
was taken, an opportunity was given for cor- 
recting the list. But how correct a list, where 
there is none? And the voters who were dis- 
franchised had no opportunity to put themselves 
upon the list, for no registry was made, and no 



correction could be made until there was a reg- 
istry. 

Mr. CLEMENS. I wish to ask the gentleman 
if the law does not require that the list shall be 
I)OSted up in a conspicu(ms place in each county, 
in order to give the people the right and power 
before the j)roper authorities to have their names 
inserted ? And in addition to that, did not, in 
four of those counties, your party interpose every 
obstacle against taking the census, and interfere 
with the officers whose duty it was to take the 
census ? 

Mr. GROW. Can you correct a list until it is 
made? The law requires a copy of the lists to 
be posted, and then they could be corrected. I 
will read the law which required the census and 
registration, passed 19th P\'bruary, 1857, which 
provides that a census shall be taken by the 
sheriffs of the several counties; and in case there 
shall be no sheriff, then by the probate judge o'' 
the courts; and in case of vacamy in the officf. 
of both sheriff and probate judge, the Governor 
to appoint some competent resident of said coun- 
ty. The duty of the census taker is thus pre- 
scribed by the third section of this law : 

" It shall be the d«ty of the sherift', probate 
' judge, or person appointed by the Governor m 
' herein provided, in each county or election 
' district, on or before the 10th day of April next. 
' to file in the office of the probate judge for sucl 
' county or election district a full and complete list 
' of all (he qualified voters resident in his said count,' 
' or election district on the 1st day of April, ISSI 
' which list shall exhibit, in a fair and legible 
' hand, the names of all such legal voters." 

And in the fifth section it is provided that 

"Said probate judge shall remain in sessior. 
' each day, Sundays excepted, from the time ot 
' recciviny said returns, until the first day of May 
' next, at such place as shall be most convenient 
' to the inhabitants of the county or election 
' district; and proceed to the inspection of said 
' returns, and hear, correct, and finally deter- 
' mine, according to the facts, without unreason- 
' able delay, all questions concerning the omission 
' of any person from said returns, or the improper 
' insertion of any name on said returns, and any 
' other questions affecting the integrity or fidelity 
' of said returns ; and for this purpose shall have 
' power to administer oaths and examine wit- 
' nesses, and compel their attendance in such 
' manner as said judge shall deem necessary." 

Now, unless a return was made by the census 
taker to the probate judge, there would be no 
list to correct, and of course there was no way 
for the voter to be registered, and if not regis- 
tered he could not vote. Nine of those fifteen 
counties which were disfranchised gave a vote 
»n the 4th of January, as certified to by Governor 
Denver, of one thousand six hundred and twenty- 
four against this Constitution. 

Mr. CLEMENS. As the gentleman from Penn- 
sylvania is making a fair argument, I desire to 
ask another question. I put it to the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania whether, in every county in 
which a vote was not taken, or in which a reg- 
istry was not made, the obstacles against taking 



a vote and making the registry did not come ex- 
clusively from the Free-State partj' of Kansas ? 

Mr. GROW. No, sir, not to my knowledge ; 
and in fifteen of those counties which were to- 
tally disfranchised, the people of those counties 
were no way in fault for no census being taken 
by the officers required by law to do it ; and if 
there wug none taken, then they could not vote, 
as I have shown. The people of some of them, 
Anderson county in particular, petitioned the 
Governor, stating that no census had been ta- 
ken, and asking what they should do. He an- 
swered, that he had no power to remedy the 
omission, but advised them to go on and elect 
delegates, and that the Convention would un- 
doubtedly receive them, in Anderson tliey did 
elect delegates, but the Convention did not re- 
ceive them. 

Under the pretended submission, the 21st of 
December, there was no opportunity for an ex- 
pression of opinion on the Constitution ; for 
nothing could be voted on save the future im- 
portation of slaves, and that only by swearing to 
support the Constitutioi^ itself, if adopted. l']ien 
if they did that, they could only vote on the Sla- 
very clause, that permitted future importation of 
slaves, with no power whatever to vote Slavery 
out. For if everybody voted ayainst what was 
called the " Slavery clause," there still remained 
the clause against which nobody was allowed to 
vote, viz: " that the rights of property in slaves 
' now in this Territory shall in no manner be 
'' interfered with." This was not submitted ; and 
to make it perpetual, another clause, not submit- 
ted, provides that by no future "revising, alter- 
' ing, or amending of the Constitution,' shall " al- 
' teration be made to affect the right of property 
' in the ownership of slaves." 

But I pass on, having shown conclusively from 
the record that the people of Kansas never had, 
until the 4th day of January last, a fair oppor- 
tunity to be heard upon the formation of this 
Constitution, either in calling the Convention or 
in the election of delegates. The only time they 
could vote fairly was on the 4th of January ; and 
yet gentlemen upon this floor insist, that because 
they did not vote before, their votes then are of 
no consequence. 

Why did they not vote before ? First, on ac- 
count of the test oaths at the time the question 
of the Convention was voted on. Next, when 
the delegates to that Convention were elected, 
more than half the counties were entirely dis- 
franchised ; and there were a large number of 
the Free-State party in the other counties who 
could not vote. Yet it is asked why, under this 
state of things, they did not go to the polls and 
vote. These facts would be a sufficient reason, 
of themselves, for their abstaining from voting ; 
but, in addition, they were assured that they 
would have an opportunity to vote on the Con- 
stitution itself. They had a right to expect it, 
by every consideration of fairness and justice, 
whether they voted for delegates or not. In the 
State which I have the honor in part to repre- 
sent, should, the question be submitted, whether 
a Constitutional Convention should be called or 
not, I may stay from the polls when that ques- 



tion is submitted ; but when the Constitution is 
framed, and I desire to vote on it, where is the 
justice, under our system of Government, of ex- 
cluding me from \oting upon it? Gentlemen 
have quoted precedents to show that it is not 
necessary to have a vote on the Constitution. 
We have been told that the Constitutions of New 
Jersey and other States were never submitted ; 
and that, therefore, there is no need of submit- 
ting a Constitution to the vote of any people. 

The gentleman from Rhode Island on my left, 
[Mr. Brayton,] represents a State which, for 
nearly two centuries, had a charter from Charles 
the Second as its Constitution, and it never was 
voted on by the people, and, for over three-quar- 
ters of a century after the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, it continued to be the organic law of 
Rhode Island ; and the argument is, that that 
being so, there is no need of the people of Kan- 
sas voting on their Constitution. New Jersey 
never voted on her Constitution ; therefore, say 
these prectdent finders, why should the people 
of Kansas be allowed to vote on theirs? If 
each of the States of the Union had to-day a 
Constitution that was never submitted to a vote 
of the people, but was acquiesced in, as framed 
by the delegates, would that be any reason why, 
when there are two great parties in a State, dif- 
fering on fundamental principles, and as to their 
proposed organic law, a majority of the people 
ought to be deprived of the chance of voting 
upon it? We often pass laws here by one vote, 
or no vote at all, because there is no difference 
of sentiment on it; but is that any reason why we 
should not have a chance to vote when we do 
differ? When there is a general acquiescence 
by a people in a Constitution, then it is of no 
consequence whether it be submitted or not ; but 
when a portion of the people demand that it 
shall be submitted, are they to be told that they 
are not to exercise the right of voting on it, be- 
cause- some other people did not wish to vote on 
theirs? 

There is no precedent for a Constitution being 
put in force, in this country, anywhere, without 
a submission to a vote of the people, if any con- 
siderable portion of them desired it, or if there 
was any great diversity of sentiment as to its 
essential provisions. That in such a case it is 
not necessary to submit the Constitution to a 
vote, is a doctrine asserted for the first time in 
our history on this Constitution. 

What is the difference in a law being passed 
for a people by a despot, or ))y nominal repre- 
sentatives, whose acts are beyond the supervision 
of the constituency ? 

If such a doctrine is to be established in the 
politics of this country, we may well ask, are we 
upon the banks of the Danube and Bosphorus, 
or on soil drenched by martyr blood in its con- 
secration to Freedom ? The disregard of the 
will of the people, in the refusal to submit their 
organic law for their approval, if they desire it, 
is, to me, a despotism equally odious with that 
of Austria or any other tyranny. 

The people of Kansas had a right to expect 
that the Constitution of the Lecompton Conven- 
tion would be submitted for approval or rejec- 



tion, not only by every consideration of justice 
and tbe uiuversally-refognitJcd injixims of free 
{ioverniiient, but by tlie pledges of all who were 
supposed to have any control over the matter. 

How could the po{)ular will be so well ascer- 
tained as by an election ? In no other way are 
they sure of embodying it, for the reason which 
the President, in his annual message, states why 
a Constitution should be submitted : 

" The election of delegates to a Convention 
' must necessarify take place in separate dis- 
' tricts. From this cause it may readily happen, 
' as has often been the case, that a majority of 
' the people of a State or Territory are on one 
' side of a question, whilst a majority of the rep- 
' resentatives from the several districts into 
' which it is divided may be upon the other side. 
' This arises from the fact that in some districts 
' delegates may be elected by small majorities, 
' whilst in others, those of different sentiments 
' may receive majorities sufficiently great not 
' only to overcome the votes given for the former, 
' but to leave a large majority of the whole people 
' in directopiiositiontoamajority of the delegates. 
' Besides, our history proves that influences may 
' be brought to bear on the representative, suffi- 
' ciently powerful to induce him to disregard the 
' will of his constituents." 

The Washington Union, of 7th July, 1857, held 
the same views as to the duty and propriety of 
the Constitution of a people being submitted to 
a vote, if desired : 

" Under these circumstances, there can be no 
' such thing as ascertaining clearly and without 
' doubt the will of the people, in any way ex- 
' cept by their own direct expression of it at the 
' polls. A Constitution not subjected to that test, 
' no matter what it contains, will never be ac- 
' kuowledged by its opponents to be anything 
' but a fraud." * * * 

" We do most devoutly believe that, unless the 
' Constitution of Kansas be submitted to a direct 
' vote of the people, the unhappy controversy 
' which has heretofore raged in that Territory 
' will be prolonged for an indefinite time to 
' come." 

Gov. Walker, everywhere in Kansas, pledged 
his honor, by the approval, as he told the peo- 
ple, of the President and his Cabinet, that the 
Constitution should be submitted. In his inau- 
gural to the people of Kansas, after quoting his 
instructions from the President, he says : 

" Irepeat, then, as my clear conviction, that un- 
' less the Convention submit the Constitution to 
' the vote of all the actual settlers of Kansas, and 
* the election be fairly and justly conducted, the 
' Constitution will be, and ought to be, rejected 
' by Congress." 

Without stopping for further reference to his 
inaugural, in which he is most emphatic on this 
point, I read from a speech of his, delivered at 
Topeka on the 8th of June, 1857, and pui)Iished 
in the Topeka Statesman of the 9th : 

" At the next election, in October, when you 
' elect the Territorial Legislature, you can repeal 
' these laws ; and you can also, by a majority of 
' your own votes, adopt or reject the Constitution 
' presented for your consideration next fail. Can 



' you not peaceably decide this question in the 
' mode pointed out by the act of Congress, if 
' you, as yon can and will, have a full opjiortu- 
' nity of recording your vote? [A voice. ' How 
' are we to get it ? '] You will (/et it hy the Con- 
' vention siibmittivg the Constitution to the vote of 
^ the whole people. [A voice. 'AVho is to elect 
' the Convention? That is the grand question.'] 
' Gentlemen, it is a comparatively small point by 
' whom the Constitution is submitted. Don't let 
' us run away after shadows. The great siib- 
' stantial point is this: Will the whole people of 
' Kansas next fall, by a fair election, impdrtiaUy 
' and fairly conducted hy impartial judges, have an 
' opportunity to decide for themselves what shall be 
' their form of Governin^nt, and what shall be their 
' social institutions? I say they will ; but I go a 
' step further. [A voice. ' ' Have you the pow- 
' er ? '] If I have not the power to bring it about, 
' if the Convention will not do it, I will join you 
' in oppositiou to their proceedings." [Cries of 
' ' Good ! ' ' good ! ' ' We hold you to your prom- 
' ise. Nothing can be asked fairer than that.'] 

These promises were given in the most author- 
itative forms: first, on the general doctrine of 
free government, that the people shall have an 
opportunity to pass on their organic law; and 
next, they had tbe positive pledges of the men 
who had authority to give those pledges. And 
yet, Judas-like, they were betrayed by a kiss. 
Governor Walker, in his letter to General Cass, 
of December 15, 1857, says: 

" In truth, I had to choose between arresting 
' that insurrection, at whatever cost of American 
' blood, by the Federal array, or to prevent the 
' terrible catastrophe, as I did, by my pledges to 
' the people, of the exertion of all my power to 
' obtain a fair election, and the submission of the 
' Constitution to the vote of the people, for ratifica- 
' tion or rejection." * * * " Not a drop of blood 
' has been shed by the Federal troops in Kansas, 
' during my administration. But insurrection 
' and civil war, extending, I fear, throughout the 
' country, were alone prevented by the course 
' pursued by me on those occasions ; and the 
' whole people, abandoning revolutionary vio- 
' lence, were induced "by me to go for the first 
' time into a general and peaceful election." 

Here, Mr. Chairman, were these rebels — these 
men whom the President ariaigns before the 
country as opposed to all law and order, and all 
forms of civil government — who, when your 
civil officer proclaimed to them that they should 
have a fair chance to vote, and that they would 
not be cheated out of their rights by fraud and 
violence, as they had been before in the whole his- 
tory of Kansas, said that they asked nothing fairer 
than that ; and they went to the polls, holding 
your pjxecutive officer to his word ; which, had 
he been permitted by the President to keep, 
there would have been now no disturbance in 
Kansas. 

The Government told them that they would 
have the privilege of going to the polls and vo- 
ting for or against the Constitution ; yet that 
right was denied them; and you insist now on 
consummating the wrong. 

These men, whom the President has arraigned 



6 



a3 traitors and rebels, and therefore not to have 
the rights oi freemen, were quieted by the sim- 
ple declaration that they should have justice. 
Ail opposition ceases then, and they follow the 
CO T?e marked out by Governor Wiillver to paci- 
fy Kansas. You could have pacitied Kansas in 
five minutes, at any time within the last four 
years, by securing to her people a ballot-box 
tree from fraud and violence. It was all they 
asked. I will read you from the despatches tliat 
came to the President, to show that he falsifies 
the truth of history when he charg'es these men 
with rebellion and treason. They have done 
what American freemen, true to the blood that 
runs in their veins, and true to the great herit- 
af'e which they received from their ancestors, 
should do. They would never submit to a usurp- 
ation of their political rights. They believe in 
the motto of Thomas Jetfersou, that " resistance 
to tyrantg is obedience to God." 

The President cannot find on record an in- 
stance of the people of Kansas ever resisting the 
laws of the United States. They simply refused 
to support the Territorial organization. They 
said, " We will have nothing to do with it ; you 
' may go on and administer it as you please ; we 
' pay no attention to it, but offer no forcible re- 
' sistance." 

Gov. Shannon, in his despatch to the Presi- 
dent, of April 11, 1856, speaking of the Topeka 
Legislature, says : 

" The legislative action of this body was mainly 
' prospective in ils characler, and looks forward to 
' the admission of Kansas into the Union as a 
' State, or to future leyislation, before their enact- 
' ments are to be enforced as law." 

Gov. Geary, in his farewell to the people of 
Kansas, bears the following testimony as to the 
character of this people : 

" The great body of the actual citizens are con- 
' servative, law-abiding, and peace-loving men, 
' disposed rather to make sacrifices for concili- 
' ation, and consequent peace, than to insist for 
' their entire rights, should the general good 
' thereby be caused to suffer." 

What was the character of the Government in 
Kansas, that the President says would have been 
long since overturned, if he had not maintained 
it with the army of the United States ? Govern- 
or Geary, in his despatch to Mr. Marcy, Septem- 
ber 9, 1856, (Executive Documents, third ses- 
sion Thirty-fourth Congress, volume 1, part 1, 
page 88,) says : 

" I find that I have not simply to contend 
' against bands of armed ruflians and brigands, 
' whose sole aim and end is assassination and 
' robbery, infatuated adherents and advocates of 
' conflicting political sentiments and local insti- 
' tulions, and evil-disposed persons, actuated by 
' a desire to obtain elevated positions, but, worst 
' of all, against the influence of men who have 
' been placed in auth'oriiy, and have employed all 
' the destructive agents around them to promote 
' their own personal interests, at the sacrifice of 
' every just, honorable, and lawful consideration. 
' I have barely time to give you a brief statement 
' of facts as 1 find them. The town of Leaven- 
' worth is now in the hands of armed bodies of 



' men, who, having been enrolled as militia, per- 
' petrate outrages of the most atrocious charac- 
' ter, under shadow of authority from the Territo- 
' rinl Government. Within a few days, these men 
' have' robbed and driven from their houses un- 
' offending citizens, have fired upon and killed . 
' others in their own dwellings, and stolen horses 
' and property under the pretence of employing 
' them in the public service. They have seized 
' persons who had committed no offence, and, 
' after stripping them of all their valuables, 
' placed them on steamers, and sent them out of 
' the Territory. 

" In isolated or country places, no man's life 
' is safe. The roads are filled with armed rob- 
' bers ; and murders, for mere plunder, are of 
' dail}' occurrence. Almost every farm-house is 
' deserted, and no traveller has the temerity to 
' venture upon the highways without an escort." 
Same document, page 72, Lieut. Mcintosh, of 
the first cavalry, writes AVoodson, Acting Gov- 
ernor at the time, that — 

" It is a notorious fact, that some of the band 
' who originally came into this Territory with 
' Colonel Buford have committed gross outrages ; 
' and I can say, with certainty, that there are 
' still small parties of his men now in the Terri- 
' tory, acting in the most lawless manner. * * * 
' Great complaints are constantly made to me of 
' the stoppage of wagons and men on the road, 
' and, in a great many instances, robberies have 
' been committed." 

These men are some of the peaceable emigrants 
that went from the South, each presented Ijy a 
clergymen of the Palmetto State with a Bible, in- 
stead of a Sharpe's rifie. 

Same document, page 106, Governor Geary, in 
a despatch to Mr. Marcy, September 16, 1856, 
says : 

" The whole country was evidently infested 
with armed bands of marauders, who set all 
law at defiance, and travelled from place to 
place, assailing villages, sacking and burning 
houses, destroying crops, maltreating women 
and children, driving off and stealing cattle and 
horses, and murdering harmless men in their 
own dwellings and on the public highways. 
* * * Whilst engaged in making prepara- 
tions for the foregoing expedition, several mes- 
sengers reached me from Lawrence, announcing 
that a powerful army was marching upon that 
place, it being the main body of the militia 
called into service by the proclamation of Secretary 
Woodso7i, when Acting Governor. * * * Twenty- 
seven hundred men, under the command of 
Generals Hershell, Reid, Atchison, Richard- 
son, Stringfellow, ifec, were encamped on the 
Wakarusa, about four miles from Lawrence, 
eager and determined to exterminate that place 
and all its inhabitants." 

Governor Geary, in nis message to the Legis- 
lature, says : 

" There is not a single officer in the Territory 
' amenable to the people or to the Governor ; all 
' having been appointed by the Legislature, and 
' holding their offices until 1857. This system 
' of depriving the people of the just exercise of 
' their rights cannot be too strongly condemned." 



Governor Geary, in his farewell to the people 
of Kansas, gives the following picture of its con- 
dition ; 

" I reached Kansas, and entered npon the dis- 
' charge of my official duties, in the most gloomy 
' hour of her history. Desolation and rum 
' reigned on every liand. Ilomes and (ifesides 
' were deserted. The smoke of burning dwell- 
' ings darkened the atmosphere. Women and 
' children, driven from their habitations, wan- 
' dered over the prairies and through the wood- 
' lands, or sought refuge and protection among 
' the Indian tribes." 

While such was the condition of Kansas, and 
these wrongs were perpetrated by the acquies- 
cence, if not instigation, of the Administration, 
its supporters in Pennsylvania called upon the 
voters in the following language. I read from a 
handbill for a Democratic meeting, at MifBin- 
bnig, September 27, 1856: 

" Democrats ! Whigs ! Republicans ! turn out 
' and learn the fact that it is the Democratic 
' party that is laboring for Freedom for Kansas, 
' the assertions of opposition orators to the con- 
' trary notwithstanding." 

Four Governors have returned from the Terri- 
tory, all telling the same story to the American 
people; that is, that the rights of the p^-ople of 
Kansas have all been trampled in the dust, the 
ballot-box violated, their houses burned, their 
presses destroyed, their public buildings battered 
down by United States cannon, under the direc- 
tion of United States officers ; yet in the face of 
the unanimous voice of these men, who have 
been upon the ground, seen with their own eyes, 
and heard with their own ears, the President 
and his adherents insist that they know best 
what is the condition of Kansas and the will of 
its people. 

Why should this great fraud upon the rights 
of a people be consummated ? What reason can 
there be, what overshadowing necessity exists, 
for so great a violaiion of the principles of free 
government. The only reason urged by its ad- 
vocates for sustaining so glaring frauds upon 
popular rights is, that it will give peace to Ka;;- 
sas, aud end the political agitations of the coun- 
try. 

Peace is the siren song that has ever preceded 
the perpetration of every new outrage upon the 
sentiments of the North and the rights and in- 
terests of free labor. On the 4th of March, 185,3, 
from the steps of yonder portico, the President 
congratulated the country that ''the agitation of 
the Slavery question was at rest." The troubled 
waters of past political dissensions had subsided, 
and not a ripple disturbed the surface. The ark 
of our covenant reposed on dry ground, and»the 
dove had found a resting place. Every foot of 
territory then owned by the Federal Government 
was fixed in its character of slave or free, by some 
law which Mr. Webster, in his delusion, thought 
to be irrepealable. And under the then existing 
judicial decisions and constitutional construc- 
tions it was all fixed for Freedom. No note of 
discord jarred on the universal harmony. The 
patriot was congratulating himself that the era 
of good feeling and brotherhood had at last 



dawned upon his country. What disturbed this 
unruflled calm, and again broke up the fountains 
of the deep ? 

On the 3Uth of May, ISS-f, five hundred thou- 
.^and square miles of this territory, once conse- 
crated to Freedom forever by the solemn act of 
our fathers, was opened to the sjjread of the in- 
stitutions of human bondage. The passage of 
the bill, at the dead hour of the niglit, was her- 
alded from this Capitol by the boom of cannon, 
since echoed from the plains of Kansas in the 
sighs of its widows and orphans, aud the wail 
of its martyrs to Freedom. In order lo drown 
these cries, and. if possible, to stifle the awaken- 
ed sense of justice and the excited sympathies 
of the humane heart, we are now called upon to 
per[ietrate still another great outrage upon the 
rights of this people. 

Peace among a brave people is not the fruit of 
injustice, nor does agitation cease by the perpe- 
tration of wrong. For a third of a century, the 
advocates of Slavery, while exercising unre- 
stricted speech in its defence, have struggled to 
prevent all discussion against it — in the South, 
by penal statutes, mob law, and brute force ; in 
the North, by dispersing assemblages of peace- 
able citizens, pelting their lecturers, burning 
their halls, and destroying their presses ; in this 
forum of the people, by finality resolves, on all 
laws for the benefit of Slavery, not, however, to 
affect those in behalf of Freedom, and by attempts 
to stifle the great constitutional right of the peo- 
ple at all times to petition their G(^ernment. 
Yet, despite threats, mob law, and Mality re- 
solves, the discussion goes on, and will continue 
to, so long as right and wrong, justice and in- 
justice, humanity and inhumanity, shall struggle 
lor supremacy in the affairs of men. 

The President makes the same excuse for his 
treatment of Kansas, that tyrants ever employ in 
justification of their cruelty and wrong. That 
is, that the injured and oppressed, because they 
will not kiss the hand that smites, are rebels 
and traitors ; and the wrong-doer, while pervert- 
ing the truth and suppressing the facts of his- 
tory, strives with hard words to heap obloquy 
and reproach upon the character and motives of 
men in every way the equal, if not the superior, 
of the traducer. 

All the wrongs of Kansas are sustained by 
the Administration, because they were perpetra- 
ted under the forms of law. Justice and right 
seem to be of less consequence than forms and 
precedents. The cruellest tyranny on the face 
of the earth rests on forms of law where it ex- 
ists. 

The bloodiest pages in the drama of man's ex- 
istence have been written under the color of law, 
and too often in the name of Justice and Liberty. 
The Jew crucified the Saviour because he was a 
fanatic, and stirred up dissensions among the 
people. The law and order conservatism of the 
middle ages ostracised Luther as a heretic, be- 
cause, while exposing the corruptions of the 
church and the reigning dynasties, he proclaimed 
to the people the great truths first taught on the 
sea shore and along the hill sides of Judea. The 
GruLli of the forest cantons of Switzerland, plan- 



ning at the midnight bour, on the banks of Lake 
.Luzerne, the liberties of their country, were, in 
the eyes of all Europe, rebels against society', and 
traitors to law and order. The world's reformers 
have ever been, in the days In which they lived, 
heretics, fanatics, and agitators ; and in most 
instances have fallen victims to the prevailing 
prejudices and vices wliich they combated. Yet 
such are the retributions of Heaven on earth, 
that the cruciliers of the world's redeemers have 
been forced to pay homage at their graves when 
dead. 

The President, in his special message on Kan- 
sas, seems to have imbibed the spirit, adopted 
the tone, temper, and language of George III, 
in his proclamations and manifestoes against the 
American Colonies. While thus imitating his 
great prototype, let him take warniug by his ex- 
ample how he forces a wronged and outraged 
people to appeal to the God of Battles in vindi- 
cation of their rights, unless he is ambitious of 
being the Nero of the liberties of his country. 

■ In my judgment, the first gun fired by a Uni- 
ted Stales soldier, in an attempt to force this Le- 
compton fraud upon the people of Kansas, will 
light a flame that seas of blood will not be able 
to extinguish. It will be but the echo of the 
British musketry in the streets of Boston on the 
19th of April, 1775. It would be but another 
struggle in vindication of the great truth of the 
Declaration of Independence, that all Govern- 
ments derive their just powers from the consent 
of the ^rerned. 

From my personal acquaintance with the Free- 
State men of Kansas, and what I know of their 
character — these descendants of Warren, Put- 
nam, Greene, and Wayne — when forced, in sub- 
mitting to injustice and wrong, to a point be- 
yocd which endurance ceases to be a virtue, will 
prove themselves no degenerate sons of noble 
sires. Whenever any portion of the American 
people shall become so callous to a sense of jus- 
tice, and so dead to the rights which belong to 
freemen, as tamely to submit to a usurpation, by 
fraud and violence, of all the powers of their 
Government, then, indeed, will they be fit for 
slaTes. 

Mr. Chairman, injustice, once enthroned in 
power, ever strives, by every device of taunt and 
jeer, to divert attention from its enormities, and 
to avoid, if possible, all discussion of its abuses. 
The weapons of a self-satisfied conservatism, em- 
ployed since the world began to uphold its in- 
justice and wrong, or to perpetuate its ill-gotten 
power, has been to excite popular prejudice, by 
crying " destructive," " agrarian," " leveller," 
"fanatic," or some other epithet made odious 
by sceptred cruelty and wrong. Such have 



been the arguments of prejudice and power, from 
the time Socrates swallowed the hemlock, and 
Galileo quivered on the rack. 

The history of to-day proves that power and 
wrong have not ceased to rely for their support 
upon attem[)t3 to excite the unworthy prejudices 
of hu/uan nature by the clamor of startling and 
odious epithets. By such means does the Presi-' 
dent strive to gloss over the blackest page of 
American history, written within the last four 
years, by the Administration and its minions, in 
the woes of Kansas. Its soil is red with the 
blood of its murdered citizens, and its atmo- 
sphere darkened with the smoke of their burning 
dwellings, while women and children fiee to the 
savage tribes of the wilderness to find protection 
against their less-merciful white pursuers. With 
the wrongs of this people unredressed, and their 
supplications for justice and the rights of free- 
men still ringing in their ears of the President, 
he declares that " Kansas has, for some years, 
' occi!|)ied too much of the public attention. It 
' is high time this should be directed io far more 
' important objects." 

What more important object can this Govern- 
ment have, than to guard the hearthstone of the 
hardy pioneer, as he goes forth into the wilder- 
ness to found new States and build up new 
Empires? What higher duty has it to perform, 
than to secure to the citizen — the humblest and 
most obscure, as well as the highest and most 
exalted — the rights guarantied to him by the 
ConstiiHtion of his country? In Kansas, from 
the first, these have been trampled in the dust. 
Hence, Kansas has, for some years, occupied the 
public attention. Is it possible that the Chief 
Magistrate of the Republic can find any more 
important object for the attention of the Govern- 
ment than the protection of the rights and lib- 
erties of American citizens, rutl.lessly violated 
under the flag of their country, unless the nobler 
and better impulses of human nature expired in 
his bosom as the last drop of Democratic blood 
oozed from his veins ? 

Kansas wants peace ; not the peace of servile 
submission to brute force, but the peace that jus- 
tice ever brings. The country wants quiet and 
repose ; not the quiet of the graveyard or the 
repose of death, but the quiet and repose secured 
by liberty, maintained hy law. But so long as 
the power of this Government is wielded to fasten 
an odious despotism upon Kansas, and to propa- 
gate the institutions of human bondage, so long 
there will and can be no peace. You can give 
peace to Kansas, repose to the country — end for- 
ever this Slavery agitation — if you will bring 
back the Government to the policy of the fathers, 
and re-establish in its administration their max- 
ims of justice and humanity. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

BUELL & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS. 

1858. ■ 



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